People power: How Queensland can convert a workforce crisis into reform

Queensland Health must grow by 46,000 staff by 2032 while tackling chronic attrition, an ageing workforce and post-pandemic fatigue. Private hospitals, primary care and aged care face similar challenges. The demand won’t be met by “more of the same”. It calls for a system that attracts, empowers and retains talent - because in healthcare, value is created by people.

Why the pressure is building

• Global competition for talent. The World Health Organization forecasts a shortfall of 10 million healthcare workers by 2030; Queensland must lift its workforce by ~30 per cent in the same period.
• Training bottlenecks. University and TAFE places, clinical placements and supervision capacity are already stretched.
• Well-being and retention. Burnout and crisis-mode management drive talent out faster than we can replace them.
• Fragmented funding and accountability. State/Commonwealth fault-lines, public–private silos and hospital-primary-aged-care interfaces create duplication and gaps.

Focus areas for the future

To confront this challenge leaders from across the sector came together at two recent healthcare workforce co-labs and a public event, to identify solutions that can close workforce gaps, elevate care quality and ensure the healthcare system is ready for the future. We heard similar themes outlining the areas for improvement, leadership and people-centred systems must be central to everything we do.

1. People first. Ask “What matters to you?” then build workforce models, roles and metrics around the answers.
2. Sustainable leadership at every tier. Advanced leadership capability, staff wellbeing, empowerment and psychological safety as core business, not extras.
3. Radical collaboration. Universities, TAFE, public, private, aged-care, First Nations and consumer groups create more value when they learn and act together.
4. Evidence into care - faster. Hard-wire translation metrics into safety and quality governance; create space, mentorship and recognition for people who bridge research and practice.
5. Modernise systems and mindsets. Replace tradition-bound thinking, workflows, forms and crisis reflexes with principle-centred leadership and lean, digitally enabled processes. 
6. Re-imagine training and accreditation. Expand clinical education beyond hospitals, shift to competency-based assessment, share placement hubs and create regional post-graduate training.
7. Make technology work for people. Digital passports for clinician credentials, decision-support surfacing evidence at the bedside, and consumer-friendly portals will lift productivity - if co-designed with users.
8. Pool funding, local solutions. Combine State and Commonwealth dollars in regional pools so communities can invest in prevention, culturally safe models and workforce pipelines.
9. Elevate First Nations and diverse talent. Targeted scholarships, cultural mentorship and career pathways are essential to an inclusive, trusted workforce.
10. Innovate with purpose, disinvest with discipline. Value-based care is as much about stopping low-value or harmful practices as adopting new ones.

The 60-30-10 opportunity: funding reform without new money

Research led by Braithwaite and colleagues shows that ~60 per cent of care is evidence-based, 30 per cent is low-value and 10 per cent causes harm. If Queensland closed even half of the gap, billions of dollars and thousands of clinician hours could be redirected. Evidence translation is therefore not a cost line, it is a hidden revenue stream.

What now: Translating evidence into action

Achieving faster, people-centred evidence translation is about shifting how the whole system thinks, funds and behaves.

People-centred evidence translation makes both data and patient preference routine in every decision. Alliances of health services, educators, consumers and First Nations leaders set local priorities; digital and AI tools surface up-to-date guidance at the bedside; boards track evidence adoption as rigorously as budgets. Principle-centred leadership - including systems thinking, staff empowerment and psychological safety - creates space for staff to innovate, while funding models reward collaboration, equity and whole-of-system value.  Evidence is as critical to business systems and leadership as it is to clinical care.

Together, these shifts can accelerate evidence translation, productivity and performance, ensuring our system is guided by what works, grounded in what matters to people and ready for the workforce demands ahead.

The benefits of people-centred systems 

• Workforce magnets. A culture that values learning, uses data transparently and invests in people is a culture that attracts and keeps staff.
• Safer, more equitable care. Faster uptake of effective practices and disciplined disinvestment in harmful or low-value care narrow the equity gap and improve outcomes.
• Budget headroom. Even conservative estimates suggest that trimming 10% of low-value care would free hundreds of millions of dollars annually - funds that can be reinvested.
• Consumer trust. When services are co-designed with lived experience and we link decisions to clear evidence, public confidence climbs.

We need to create a people-centred, evidence-led system that is both affordable and sustainable. Technology and capital projects matter, yet they will only deliver if leaders at every level cultivate cultures of collaboration, curiosity and courage.

Queensland’s healthcare workforce challenge is daunting. We require the discipline to translate evidence into action, the humility to keep consumers and staff at the centre, and the resolve to invest in leadership that endures beyond the next roster cycle. Together we can build the health system Queenslanders deserve.